Survivor: Woman hit on train tracks

The more-than-a-mile-long train stopped about 20 feet after striking a woman.PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

An empty CSX freight train ground to a halt at 5:35am this morning in Crozet when a woman was hit and dragged approximately 20 feet. Amazingly, the woman had "very minor injuries," Buckingham Branch VP of operations Gale Wilson says he was told by the state police.

The 7,000-foot-long empty coal train was headed west and going less than 10 mph, says Wilson. Buckingham Branch leases the track and the train is owned by CSX, which is investigating the incident.

When Albemarle police arrived, the pedestrian, a Crozet resident, was conscious but had sustained a head injury and was taken to the hospital.

"The cops said she wasn't in her right frame of mind" before she got on the tracks, an observer at the scene who declined to be identified told the Hook.

The train was stopped along Railroad Avenue for four hours after the woman came into its path on a stretch before Lanetown Road and behind Orchard Acres subdivision. CSX was investigating the incident and it sent a new crew.